Dow Jones ends in the black, Nasdaq closes below 34,700

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Dow Jones ends in the black, Nasdaq closes below 34,700

The Dow Jones was the only index to finish in the black, but its gains were more than halved in the final half-hour of trading as buying support dried up. The index was more than modest in the final minutes, and clawed back in the final minutes.

The U.S. dollar was higher on Friday due to rising Treasury yields. The 10 year paper surpassed 2.70 percent Friday, a 3 year high. The U.S. dollar index hit par.

Joe Manimbo, senior market analyst at Western Union Business Solutions in Washington told the Reuters Thomson news agency on Friday that the dollar's latest pop was the culmination of bullish factors ranging from geopolitical risk, election uncertainty in France, and the Fed's increasingly hawkish outlook for interest rates.

The U.S. dollar index is up 1.50 percent this week, its biggest weekly increase in a month.

The euro ended up around 1.0876 late Friday. The British pound fell to 1.3035. The Japanese yen fell to 124.35 after a relentless sell-off. The Swiss franc was down to 0.9338.

The Canadian dollar was soft at 1.2569. The Australian dollar fell to 0.7457. The New Zealand dollar was a bit lower at 0.6845.

The Dow Jones Industrials, after a volatile day, advanced 137.55 points or 0.40 percent to 34,721. The Nasdaq Composite plummeted 186.30 points or 1.34 percent to close Friday at 13,711. The Standard and Poor's 500 dropped 11.93 points or 0.27 percent to 4,488, down 11.93 points or 0.27 percent. The Dax in Germany appreciated by 1.46 percent on overseas equity markets. The Paris-based CAC 40 climbed 1.34 percent. The FTSE 100 was up 1.56 percent in London.

The Nikkei 225 gained 97.23 points or 0.36 percent in Japan to 21,985. The Australian All Ordinaries gained 37.20 points or 0.48 percent to 7,772. In New Zealand, the S&P NZX 50 fell 9.64 points or 0.08 percent to 12,066. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong dropped by 63.03 points or 0.29 percent to close Friday at 21,872.